ICT IN THE PRESENT AND DISTANCE WAY OF INSTRUCTION: COMPARISON OF STUDY RESULTS CZECH-LATVIAN RESEARCH

The article presents results of research which was run during the ERASMUS Programme in 2008/9 academic year. The research deals with comparison of study results in present and distance form of education. Students of author´s home institution, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic, and the partner institution, Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration, Riga, Latvia, participated in the research. Its main objective was to learn whether there exist any significant differences in study results at the institutions and in the present and distance form of instruction there. The research field was English for specific purposes, namely topics Geography&Tourism, Social communication, Education, English grammar etc. The method of experiment was applied to collect the necessary data to verify the hypothesis. First, students´entrance knowledge was tested by pre-tests, and then the process of instruction followed. It was organized either in the traditional present, i.e. face-to-face way, or in the distance way supported and managed by modern technologies. At the end of the experiment, students´knowledge was evaluated by post-tests. The received data were processed by NCSS 2004 statistic software and compared in both institutions. At the end of the article the received results are discussed.